Murali Nair, Director

Unni has a lot of autobiographical elements, but it is not an autobiography at all. I have just taken the characters and atmosphere from my own experience of growing up in a small village in Kerala, but not the full story.For many people, there comes a time when you turn back and suddenly look at your childhood in a romantic way, appreciating what a beautiful world you lived in. I had to wait until I was forty for this to happen! Now, I can see the barriers I had back then, but at that time, it seemed like there were no barriers at all. We sailed through life, and even now, I observe these kind of friendships thriving in villages, but feel that children in cities are increasingly losing out on the essence of what’s really needed to engage in friendships. Even within Kerala, when I was looking for children from various backgrounds, what immediately came to me was the special bond that village children share. I used this in casting the film, rehearsing the actors and in my direction on the shoot.

I looked around for many places for locations, but nothing matched the character of the village where I grew up. I was anxious about going back there with a film crew but it was amazing how the initial fear soon faded away. In fact, it was really wonderful to go back the village where I spent my childhood and meet such a huge variety of people, most of whom I hadn’t seen for 25 years. It felt a bit awkward at times watching the private buses plying on tarmac roads, but I realized that not much has changed there. Instead, it was me who has changed. Even so, I can still connect to the smiles of the kids and their grandparents. I am so pleased I traveled back to this film the village that was my own once upon a time, and I plan this film to be the first of a trilogy: the next phase will explore a young boy’s life in a big city, Bombay, and finally, the third phase will be show the boy growing up as teenager, and having ended up in London.

It was really a wonderful experience making this film: Personally I can't explain this experience. I got wonderful support from the entire village. I knew pretty much every child of the village as son and daughter (or perhaps grand son and grand daughter of so and so). Virtually everyone whom I knew in my childhood came and said hello and that was wonderul. Then I realised the gap between me the film director and me, the person who grew up in that area. I am very happy that this film helped me to bridge that gap. Normally you would believe that the slang of the language, and many other things would have changed in the 25 years...yes, it has, but not for the children of this age. I feel the emotions and expressions are much more varied here that you would perhaps get in a town. Don't ask me why!

Unni tries to capture those magical moments of childhood - Unni, Ramu and Raju, lead by Gopi, venturing out to peep into the girls’ toilet to discover why girls squat to pee, the carpenter repairing the roof while the class goes on, the teacher having a conversation with the carpenter working above, the children mockingly singing at the carpenter about his balls dangling out of his mundu (loincloth), Unni’s love-letter to the carpenter’s daughter, Sujatha, handed over to the wrong girl by the ‘messenger’ boy, Gopi trying out his magic prowess on a little boy inspired by the magic show at the school, Unni dreaming of Sujatha’s skirt flying up.

I screened the completed film in the village and that was a night to remember.. Everyone from the village came and we all had a wonderful laugh. Most of the time, they were comparing the role they played with their real life role - for eg. the real school teacher played a tea shop owner. It was unforgettable!